This invention relates to image forming apparatus and method capable of forming an image on a plain paper.
There has been well known an electrofax method for forming a visible image using a photosensitive sheet comprising a conductive substrate and a photoconductive layer thereon. In this method, the photosensitive sheet is precharged and selectively exposed to light to form an electrostatic latent image, and thereafter the latent image is developed into the visible image using liquid developer agent which is formed by dispersing toner particles in insulating medium. Further, there has been proposed an image forming apparatus for forming a full color image on the above photosensitive sheet by successively carrying out the above method for three colors such as yellow, magenta and cyan.
In the conventional apparatus as described above, a high quality image can be easily obtained because no toner transfer process is needed. However, a visible image is formed only on a specifically manufactured sheet, that is, it is impossible to form an image on an image recording medium other than the specifically-manufactured sheet.